In Stevan Shapona's realist paintings of the figure, one finds
qualities of light, color and composition that are not often seen in work
by the artists of today.

"I'm a traditionalist," says Shapona. "My aim is to take a concern for
formal values on one hand and a concern for representing the human figure
on the other. My hope is to harmoniously combine these two concerns."

Shapona, a native of San Francisco, has strong formal training. He has
studied with a number of well-known Bay Area artists and in New York and
Washington. His degree is from San Jose State University. He has painted portraits, still lifes and a series of tonalist landscapes reminiscent of the Barbizon school.

But it is figure work that has commanded his attention in recent years.